Lottery tickets of the scratch-off variety are well known and played by a significant number of players in the United States and in other countries of the world. Scratch-off games typically have the player remove a scratch-off layer from a designated play area to expose multiple indicia in which certain patterns of the play indicia or game symbols, if present, constitute a winning prize.
There has been a growing tendency to introduce scratch-off lottery tickets in which the type of game or play action involves more than merely removing a scratch-off layer to ultimately determine if a prize has been won. The object is to provide the player with an additional form of amusement.
One such lottery ticket is a scratch-off lottery ticket with a first play area as is customary with lottery tickets. Play indicia are provided beneath the scratch-off layer and if removal of the scratch-off layer of all or part of the game area in accordance with the instructions of the lottery game reveals a prize winning combination, then the player may win a prize. Such lottery tickets also include a second play area in which the player may optionally risk the prize that is won in the first play area by removing the scratch-off layer from the second play area. If a prize enhancing symbol is present, then the value of a prize won in the first play area will be enhanced. On the other hand, if a prize reducing symbol is present, the value of the prize may be decreased or even eliminated.
While the attractiveness of a lottery ticket game to the purchasing public depends in part on the prize structure and the type of game being played, the success of the lottery system also depends on the ability of lottery sponsors to provide sufficient protection against counterfeiting and the like of lottery tickets (i.e. the ability to authenticate/validate that a ticket presented for claiming a prize is a proper ticket and the prizes claimed on the ticket are also proper).
In dual play area type lottery tickets described above, there is a concern that unscrupulous retail agents may manipulate the lottery system by fraudulent claiming of winning tickets. For example, the lottery ticket agent may perpetuate fraud on winning tickets in which a prize has been awarded in the first play area and the player has opted not to play the second play area. The retail agent may pay off the prize designated in the first play area and then remove the scratch-off layer in the second play area to see if a prize enhancing symbol is present. If so, the retail agent proceeds to collect the enhanced prize from the lottery sponsor. If the lottery sponsor requires the retail agent to turn in all tickets, then the retail agent will need to look below the scratch-off layer (e.g. by pinholing) to observe whether a prize enhancing symbol is present before removing the scratch-off layer.
In this type of lottery ticket, each of the first play area and the second play area are provided with identical authentication indicia which if read by an optical scanner can authenticate the ticket. However, the presence of the same indicia in the first and second play areas enables an unscrupulous retail agent to circumvent the system and obtain the benefit associated with tickets collected in which the player has not played the second play area and the second play area contains a prize enhancing symbol. This is because in part, the optical scanner does not effectively differentiate between lottery tickets in which only the first play area was played and lottery tickets in which both the first and second play areas were played.
It would therefore be a significant advance in the art of protecting such dual play area lottery game tickets from counterfeiting or misplaying if enhanced security can be provided in connection with the second play area.
It would be a further significant advance in the art if an authentication/validation system could be developed in which authentication/validation of a properly played second play area negates authentication/validation of the same ticket for the first play area.